For the record, China is a big place with a lot of different tribes and cultures and peoples. So lets talk about the culture specific to lasers, call it the Post Communist Manufacturing Culture.
When I worked at a university, I worked with graduate students. I flat out asked a group of Chinese students about the low cost electronics situation, and explained the laser situation. They were not shocked that I asked this, and gladly explained a few things. They were not a bit apologetic, they looked at the discussion as a means to understand trade with western nations, as nearly all of them will go do product research for big corporations.
This is my understanding, but keep in mind the young folks I worked with were picked from a young age for a academic track, odds are their parents were managers who tutored their children, not line workers. None of them will see a assembly line in their life, unless they end up owning it!
The one, when he went back with a doctorate, was offered a professorship, about 250,000 US dollars in startup money, a job for life as a academic, and the top floor in a apartment building as a incentive. He received his own apartment, and rents the rest. He teaches and does research for the day job and runs a company in the evenings.
Here is what they said, as I understand it:
1. People are often paid by the task or piece, so your in a hurry. If you don't hurry, there is another person from a rural farm who is glad to take your place. Working fast does not mean you work accurately. Meeting the production quota is more important then quality. If it flunks final test, rework it with another low cost worker, rather then reject it.
2. Quality control is on the customer. When haggling, you, the customer, are expected to inspect the goods at purchase, before delivery. You, the foreign pointer owner, are not there to haggle and inspect the product. So its easy to ship you junk. You do not have much recourse. If you stop buying their product, some one else will, because every one is looking for deal.
3. Supervisors and quality control people are expensive. They have to have education, thus good ones expect to be paid more. Good ones can easily find work at another company in a developing economy. Good ones can often go start a competing company. So its cheaper to have a 30:1 employee to supervisor ratio and toss or rework the bad product.
This is changing as western companies shift manufacturing to China, and expect to get their monies worth. Its also changing as they go automated on their lines, but right now humans are far cheaper then robotics for them.
You can bet they have far less disposable income. Many workers live 4 or more to a room in a company dorm, very much like a military barracks.
One thing just came to mind. A common sick joke when I was a kid, was the quality difference between a imported Japanese car and a American made car. The Japanese car would be quiet. In the American car, you were likely to find at least one rattle. That rattle would be a Coke bottle welded inside in your fender. So its NOT just a China problem.
Steve
No pains, No gains. BUT this is not suitable for the whole world. Whoever said "you cannot get something for nothing" has not searched the Internet lately.